Geotechnical Investigation of In-Lake Sediment Treatment for Megginnis Arm of Lake Jackson, Tallahassee, Florida

Megginnis Arm of Lake Jackson in Tallahassee, Florida, has experienced rapid eutrophication as a result of development within the contributing area watershed. Bottom sediments were sampled for purposes of mapping, classifying and designating for removal. Sediment desiccation studies were performed to determine the percent of consolidation and sealing characteristics of the soils in the event of a lake drawdown. Restoration alternatives are presented and compared on the basis of field investigations, laboratory testing and analysis, and the desiccation study. Alternative methods are discussed with respect to the cost, the flexibility and the problems inherent in the different proposals. From the geometry of Megginnis Arm, and construction permit limitations, this study was limited to methods of restoration which include dredging, drawdown and excavation, drawdown and compaction, and drawdown with dredging. By comparing the costs, the practicality, and geotechnical investigation and the flexibility of alternative methods, it is concluded that the drawdown and excavation method is the alternative. The dredging and drawdown and dredging alternatives were determined to be uneconomical and risky. These methods are not recommended

An Investigation of Methods for Estimating Marginal Values of Irrigation Water

Marginal values of water us ed in irrigation are needed if water is to be optimally allocated among alternative uses. Cobb- Douglas production function analysis and linear programming methods were studied in this investigation to find their fruitfulness in predicting these marginal values. The theoretical properties of both methods indicate that they are conceptually capable of yielding valid marginal value estimates for irrigation water. Further investigation of the two methods was carried out as an empirical test in the Milford area of Utah . Marginal values of water used for irrigation in that area were estimated by both procedures. Although inviolable criteria for testing the validity of the estimates are not available, imperfect standards or\u27 measure imply that they are sound. Linear programming and Cobb -Douglas production function analysis are therefore concluded to be fruitful methods of estimating marginal values of water used for irrigation

Are College-Educated Police Officers Different? A Study of Stops, Searches, and Arrests

A study of more than 60,000 police traffic stops found that college-educated officers were more likely than other officers to stop drivers for less serious violations, perform consent searches, and make arrests on discretionary grounds. These results are consistent with those of prior research indicating that college-educated officers are more achievement oriented and eager for advancement based on the traditional performance criteria of stops, searches, and arrests. The results raise questions regarding the recommendation of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2015) to improve police-community relations by hiring more college-educated police officers, especially in urban communities where concerns about over policing are widespread. If community engagement were to become a primary basis for professional advancement, however, the current results suggest that college-educated officers may adapt to the new standards as diligently as they have to the traditional criteria for reward and promotion in U.S. police departments

Expression and purification of an adenylation domain from a eukaryotic nonribosomal peptide synthetase: Using structural genomics tools for a challenging target

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are large multimodular and multidomain enzymes that are involved in synthesising an array of molecules that are important in human and animal health. NRPSs are found in both bacteria and fungi but most of the research to date has focused on the bacterial enzymes. This is largely due to the technical challenges in producing active fungal NRPSs, which stem from their large size and multidomain nature. In order to target fungal NRPS domains for biochemical and structural characterisation, we tackled this challenge by using the cloning and expression tools of structural genomics to screen the many variables that can influence the expression and purification of proteins. Using these tools we have screened 32 constructs containing 16 different fungal NRPS domains or domain combinations for expression and solubility. Two of these yielded soluble protein with one, the third adenylation domain of the SidN NRPS (SidNA3) from the grass endophyte Neotyphodium lolii, being tractable for purification using Ni-affinity resin. The initial purified protein exhibited poor solution behaviour but optimisation of the expression construct and the buffer conditions used for purification, resulted in stable recombinant protein suitable for biochemical characterisation, crystallisation and structure determination

Ohio Principals’ Perceptions of Communication Skills, Factors, and Courses Among Criteria for Secondary- Teacher Effectiveness

In a recent article in Communication Education, Curtis, Winsor, and Stephens (1989) presented the results of a study that assessed managers’ perceptions of the skills and abilities of greatest significance in the business setting. The authors concluded “It is our belief and the belief of perspective (sic) employers throughout the United States that courses such as public speaking, listening, and interpersonal communication should be included as an oral communication core in (business programs)” (p. 13). The present study seeks to expand their findings and beliefs to a secondary-education setting. Specifically, this paper presents the results of a survey study conducted using a sample of secondary principals from the state of Ohio. The primary research question was “What skills, factors, and coursework are considered of greatest importance by secondary principals as administrators involved in the hiring and evaluation of secondary teachers?” A second question was “How do principals rate communication skills and courses when considering teacher effectiveness?” The intent of the authors was to examine the perceptions of secondary principals to determine tentative answers to these questions answers to these questions. Principles were chosen because they play a central role in the teacher-effectiveness discussion. As educational administrators, most are directly involved in applying effectiveness standards to their schools. In addition, this study attempts to provide some empirical support for the assertions and suggestions of Dewitt, et all., (1991) as they argue for an increased role for oral-communication theory and practice in education, and for Allen and Shaw (1990) who assert that communication behaviors are related to teaching effectiveness in the perceptions of supervisors of teachers

Groupthink and the Classroom: Changing Familiar Patterns to Encourage Critical Thought

Groupthink is an unhealthy decision-making pattern characterized by a high degree of cohesiveness and a striving for consensus among the members of a decision-making group. This article considers the classroom as a potential contributor to the groupthink phenomenon, comparing the antecedent conditions for group think with typical classroom conditions and expectations. With a plausible, though unproven, link between the classroom and group think decision making, four suggestions are offered teachers for encouraging independent thought and action in students. The four suggestions include adding critical-thinking skills, decision-making skills, small group communication skills, and conflict management skills to the curriculum. These additions are possible and valuable at every educational level

Human rights and democratic arms transfers : rhetoric versus reality with different types of major weapon systems

Since the height of the Cold War, the policies of major democratic arms suppliers have stated that human rights violations in the importing state affect their decision to export. After the Cold War, the focus on the importer's human rights record increase in exporter policies. We examine the arms transfer patterns of the four major democratic suppliers between 1976 and 2009 to determine empirically whether the patterns of transfers match policy. We argue that if practice matches policy, then democratic suppliers should not transfer weapons to states violating human rights. However, as global interests of these suppliers have shifted over time we condition our arguments by stating that if practice matches policy, then there still may be transfers of major weapon systems, but of types that are not as useful for violating human rights. We build on existing arms transfer literature by disaggregating exports based on weapons type. The ordered logits we run for each major democratic supplier from 1976-2009 show that the major democratic suppliers generally do not account for human rights violations in the importing state, with the one exception being the United States transfer of land weapon systems

Brain connectivity Patterns Dissociate action of specific Acupressure Treatments in Fatigued Breast cancer survivors

Funding This work was supported by grants R01 CA151445 and 2UL1 TR000433-06 from the National Institutes of Health. The funding source had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. We thank the expert assistance by Dr. Bradley Foerster in acquisition of 1H-MRS and fMRI data.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A selective role for neuronal activity regulated pentraxin in the processing of sensory-specific incentive value

Neuronal activity regulated pentraxin (Narp) is a secreted neuronal product which clusters AMPA receptors and regulates excitatory synaptogenesis. Although Narp is selectively enriched in brain, its role in behavior is not known. As Narp is expressed prominently in limbic regions, we examined whether Narp deletion affects performance on tasks used to assess motivational consequences of food-rewarded learning. Narp knock-out (KO) mice were unimpaired in learning simple pavlovian discriminations, instrumental lever pressing, and in acquisition of at least two aspects of pavlovian incentive learning, conditioned reinforcement and pavlovian-instrumental transfer. In contrast, Narp deletion resulted in a substantial deficit in the ability to use specific outcome expectancies to modulate instrumental performance in a devaluation task. In this task, mice were trained to respond on two levers for two different rewards. After training, mice were prefed with one of the two rewards, devaluing it. Responding on both levers was then assessed in extinction. Whereas control mice showed a significant preference in responding on the lever associated with the nondevalued reward, Narp KO mice responded equally on both levers, failing to suppress responding on the lever associated with the devalued reward. Both groups consumed more of the nondevalued reward in a subsequent choice test, indicating Narp KO mice could distinguish between the rewards themselves. These data suggest Narp has a selective role in processing sensory-specific information necessary for appropriate devaluation performance, but not in general motivational effects of reward-predictive cues on performance